英语听力精选进阶版 7360（在线收听）

BBC News with David Legge

The government of Yemen says two boats crammed with African migrants have capsized off its coast, killing more than 80 people. Rescue teams have found only three survivors. Magdi Abdelhadi reports.

The Yemeni interior ministry issued a brief statement which gave few details. It said that the boats went down in strong wind and that the coast guards were looking for possible survivors. Thousands of African immigrants take the perilous journey across the Red Sea to Yemen every year. Many drown in their rickety boats. It is perhaps a measure of the hard life they are fleeing that the refugees continue to try to come to Yemen, despite the risk to the lives and the bleak life that awaits most of them in one of the poorest countries in the world.

The veteran Democratic politician Jerry Brown has been sworn in again as governor of California at a ceremony in Sacramento. Mr Brown, who last served in the job almost three decades ago, replaces the Republican former Hollywood actor Arnold Schwarzenegger. From California, Rajesh Mirchandani reports.

Seventy-two-year-old Jerry Brown has already held the office of governor for eight years until 1983. His latest inauguration ceremony in Sacramento was a modest affair that began with a youthful, exuberant choir, perhaps a symbol of the California many remember. But he inherits a state in economic crisis and is expected to announce deep cuts. In his speech, the Democratic governor asserted that government pays for things many people want, but admitted difficult decisions have to be made.

Police in Israel have arrested two Palestinians working for the British consulate in East Jerusalem in connection with an alleged terror plot. The pair are accused of trying to buy weapons for an attack on a sports stadium. From Jerusalem, here's Wyre Davies.

It's thought the two men, who had maintenance jobs at the consulate and did not have sensitive security clearance, were suspected of trying to obtain weapons for an attack on the Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem. Over the weekend, Israeli security sources said that two other men, one a resident of East Jerusalem and another an Israeli citizen, had been arrested and charged with planning to carry out a rocket or missile attack on the stadium, although it's believed the attempt never got further than a planning stage.

A judge in Uganda has ruled in favour of a petition to stop media companies from outing homosexuals. The judge ruled that publishing the identities of gay people violated their constitutional right to privacy as it exposed them to attacks from vigilantes. The court granted an injunction against a national newspaper, Rolling Stone, and ordered it to pay compensation, but lawyers said the ruling applied to all media.

Almost four million people have signed up to vote in southern Sudan's independence referendum which is due to begin on Sunday. The Southern Sudan Referendum Commission said 95% of those who registered were in the south; others signed up in northern Sudan and abroad.

World News from the BBC

A leading supporter of President Laurent Gbagbo of Ivory Coast has warned of serious consequences if force is used to remove him from office. Mr Gbagbo has refused to step down after November's presidential election. The Ivorian leader's spokesman in South Africa, Ohoupa Sessegnon, said the region would burn if West African states sent troops to Ivory Coast, and he accused the former colonial power France of manipulating the international community. Here's Mike Wooldridge.

Mr Sessegnon insisted that it was not Laurent Gbagbo's stay in power, as he put it, that could push the country back into civil war, but the pushing of France. The party official argued that central to the present crisis was refusal to investigate what led to the election results being disputed, and he also maintained that Mr Gbagbo was prepared to compromise and accept power-sharing if it would help to preserve peace.

Greece says it's planning to build a fence along part of its border with Turkey to keep out illegal immigrants. The Greek public order minister said more than 100,000 people had crossed into Greece illegally last year. He added that Athens had an obligation to deal with the situation.

Hungary has forcefully rejected Western criticism of its new media law which has been described as an attempt to restrict freedom of expression. The government said the criticism was ill-informed and absurd, and that many other European Union countries had stricter media controls. The law came into force at the start of the year.

The American screen actress Anne Francis has died at a retirement home in California. Anne Francis first came to prominence in the 1950s when she featured in the science fiction classic Forbidden Planet.

"Anne Francis is his alluring daughter Altaira, who has never seen a young man till she meets Commander Adams, played by talented Leslie Nielsen."

"Come on in."

"I didn't bring my bathing suit."

"What's a bathing suit?"

The actress Anne Francis, who's died at the age of 80.

BBC News